North Ferriby VS Rossington Main

North Ferriby FC v Rossington Main FC Match Report (14.12.19)

Urban Newton

Floodlight failure caused North Ferriby FC's home fixture with Rossington Main to be abandoned with nine minutes left to play.

The Villagers were 4-0 up, courtesy of a hat trick from Tom Corner and one from Eddy Birch, but the win is now in doubt after the referee called-off play in the latter stages of the game.

Danny Emerton had a fantastic chance to put Ferriby in the lead on six minutes. The ball was moved from left to right with fantastic pace and quality- from Joe Dale to Andy Taylor to Emerton- and the winger found himself in acres of space. He squeezed his shot under the goalkeeper but it was cleared off the line well.

Taylor, playing in the number ten role, enjoyed running off striker Tom Corner all afternoon and they were both part of the build-up play to create a golden chance for Dale.

This time, Dale found himself in space on the right but he took too long with his controlling of Emerton's cross-field ball. Dale's outside-of-the-foot effort was tame and straight at goalkeeper Jan Budtz.

Both sides lacked composure at the back, particularly the visitors, though Niall Doran did offer a lot of quality for The Colliery down the left.

The best chance of the half, for either team, fell to Rossington. It came courtesy of a mistake from goalkeeper Lewis Exall, whose flat goal kick only found the back of the unwitting Levi Tarbotton. Adam Watson pounced on the opportunity but dragged his effort disappointingly to the right of Exall's goal.

The deadlock was broken less than thirty-seconds into the second half however.

Emerton played a raking diagonal pass into Dale on a crossing position on the left. He hit it first-time across the six yard box and it found the ever-poaching Corner who slid in to finish. That's his fifteenth for the season.

The visitors responded fantastically. Masassa Kianga played a neat one-two on the edge of the home box and tried to whip an effort inside the far left-hand post. It could only find the outside of that post though.

But Ferriby further upped their attacking intent too.

Corner bagged his second by converting an in-swinging Jamie Forrester free kick from the right with, possibly, his arm. Nonetheless, the referee thought there was nothing illegal with the finish from ten yards and the goal, despite the Rossington appeals, stood.

A fracas involving all the players on the pitch ensued just before the seventy-minute mark. Laurence McKay was down holding his face, from a possible elbow, but nothing more than a yellow card to Main's Watson was handed out.

Substitute Eddy Birch, back in the side after a few weeks' absence, got the Villagers' third. Jamie Forrester swung in a corner from the right and Birch met it on the half-volley to smash home with ease from pount-blank.

Three minutes later, on eighty-one minutes, Corner had his hat-trick. In almost identical fashion, he met a corner from the right to finish with a half-volley from the penalty-spot.

There was to be another twist in the tale however. Floodlight failure, a familiar theme that has dogged Ferriby all season, caused the game to be abandoned with nine minutes left to play and Ferriby 4-0 up.

The victory is in no way guaranteed and we will have to wait for the league's decision when they meet at the end of the month.

North Ferriby FC squad: Lewis Exall; Ben Leyland, Laurence McKay, Levi Tarbotton, James Piercy ©; Jamie Forrester (off 79'), Louis Kirk; Joe Dale (off 64'), Andy Taylor, Danny Emerton; Tom Corner

Substitutes: Dan Nichols, Jordan Douglas, Eddy Birch (on 64'), Jason Mycoe (on 79'), Tom Oliver

Attendance: 275